The Girl From Camp Iwahanee
by FrankaPhile
Summary: Tyler remembers a girl from his past The XMen's Kitty Pryde. Their secrets will either bring them together or forever drive them apart.
1. Prologue

Tyler Sims made his bed, folding the sheets and blankets neatly just as his mother had done for him when he was younger. Now it was his responsibility. He was a student at Spenser Academy and, like most of the students, Tyler stayed in the dorms. Keeping his room clean was up to him, now. Having Reid Garwin as a roommate, though, meant the during most of the school year their bedroom floor wouldn't be visible through all of the dirty clothing and trash. Reid wasn't as neat as Tyler. Reid was perfectly content to be living in a pig sty just as long as it didn't attract roaches or mice.

Grabbing the remote, Tyler turned his rather small television on to a news channel. Silence was one of a few things that made Tyler a little creeped out and the television, even when it was only broadcasting white noise, got rid of any silence.

"Figured you'd get here early…" Reid's entry made Tyler jump a little. He slung a duffel bag off of his shoulder and onto his bed - the one that hadn't been made yet and would probably never come close to being as neatly made as Tyler's bed.

"Hey, man," Tyler nodded a hello in his roommate's direction.

"Did you see what's going down?" Reid pointed to the television. Tyler shook his head, then turning to get a glimpse of whatever was on the television screen.

"…_the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge as a result of mutant-versus-mutant violence all related to the discovery of the so-called mutant cure…"_

It was when Tyler spotted a familiar face that he stopped listening to the newscaster. Standing at a modest height with her chocolate brown hair tied back in a ponytail was Katherine Pryde, known to friends as Kitty. She was sweaty, pieces of her hair stuck to her forehead with perspiration. He assumed that she'd been part of the fight and prayed that she'd been on the right side.

"Snap out of it, baby boy." Reid waved a hand in front of Tyler's eyes, trying to get his attention away from the news.

"Sorry, man, it's just…" He sighed. "You remember that girl from Camp Iwahanee?"


	2. The Summer At Camp

"Maybe this summer _will _suck." Pogue Parry declared. The rest of the group silently agreed.

For starters, they'd been assigned to a cabin ruled by Jambo who was quite possibly the biggest jackass any of the thirteen year olds had ever come across in their lives. He liked to call himself 'God' and had a tattoo on his arm in big, bold letters. The tattoo, he'd said, was his only commandment - _Obey_. Otherwise he'd leave the cabin door open for something he called the Wood's Hole Warlock. All of them thought it was bullshit, but they listened anyway for fear of him crushing them between his finger and thumb. He was a big guy and that was the only reason anybody took him and his stupid threats seriously.

Just when they thought that their counselor would be their only problem at Camp Iwahanee, the four boys found that they were signed up to be in one activity together and only one. If it was baseball or something of that sort they wouldn't have minded, but they were all signed up for _weaving_.

The group stood around, hands in their pockets as they got to know one another. They'd all found out by conversing with each other on the bus to Camp Iwahanee that their fathers were all friends. It seemed like a pleasant coincidence. Maybe they would be friends like their fathers. They certainly would be seeing a lot of each other in weaving class every day.

The last busload of students pulled up on the gravel road and Tyler turned to see who had arrived. Kids his age and younger filed off of the bus with their belongings in duffel bags and backpacks. They all seemed to have picked their friends already. The moment they stepped off the bus they paired off with giggles and smiles but the girl who caught Tyler's eye was by herself.

She wasn't overtly feminine like the majority of girls he'd seen so far. She had her espresso brown hair tied back into a ponytail with a few strands loose, framing her face. She looked somewhat fit - definitely not pudgy like Tyler. Most of all, though, she looked like she was out of place. He couldn't put his finger on the quality that made her stand out, he just knew that she did.

It was a little awkward when their gazes met. The girl gave Tyler a little half-smile, quickly turning and attempting to find her cabin.

"So, I say we get Caleb to argue our way out of weaving class." Reid suggested with a mock-gagging noise.

"Why me?" Caleb wrinkled his eyebrows together in confusion.

"You're the smart one, Caleb." Pogue shrugged. "You're articulate."

Reid and Tyler nodded in agreement. They all wanted to get out of weaving.

* * *

Caleb stood ahead of the other three. He hesitated for a moment before knocking on the cabin's door where their weaving class was supposed to take place. Just before his knuckles struck the wooden surface the door opened as if the man who'd opened it knew that they had arrived.

It seemed like something out of a horror movie. The cabin was dark, made of rotting, grey wood. Its windows were filthy and didn't allow much light to pass through them to the interior of the cabin.

The man who stood in the doorway was even creepier. The top of his head was bald, but the hair he had by his temples and at the base of his neck was greasy and dirty white. It fell past his shoulders making him look like an old hermit. His expression was less than happy, as well. All of these things pieced together made the four campers a little more than uneasy.

"Sir…?" Caleb's voice faltered as he looked at the old counselor with fear in his big brown eyes. "A-are you teaching weaving?"

"Yes," The man's voice was even intimidating. It put a lump in Caleb's throat and he spent a good few seconds trying to swallow it along with his fear.

"Come inside…" The man stepped to the side to allow the four campers inside.

"Actually, we came here to say that we didn't sign up for weaving." Reid spoke and put his hands on his hips, feeling like _someone_ had to stand up and say it.

"Oh, I know." The old man grinned, revealing several unhealthy yellow teeth. Reid winced inwardly. "But you're coming inside. You need to come inside." He took another step to the side as if it would make the boys feel more comfortable entering a creaky, decaying old cabin.

The four of them filed in, though, their guard up and preparing them for whatever weaving class would bring them.

"Have a seat," The man gestured to five wooden stools set up in the middle of a room lit only by the fireplace in the front of it. He took his seat on the stool set in the middle of the other four so that all eyes would be on him.

"I'm Gorman Twoberry." He cleared his throat. "And I've known all of you ever since you were born. It's no coincidence that you're all here. Your fathers meant for you to come together this summer for a special purpose."

"To learn how to be a bunch of weaving pansies?" Reid smirked.

"No," Gorman laughed and it sounded like the laughter stirred up something disgusting in his throat and making the boys wince again. "To learn magic, Mr. Garwin."

Even though he'd said that he knew the four of them since they were born it was still a surprise to hear Gorman speak Reid's surname.

"That's _bull_." Pogue crossed his arms. "We're not kids, Mr. Twoberry. You can't expect us to believe that crap."

"Please, call me Gorman." He smiled in a way that was almost pleasant. "And yes, I do expect you to believe this."

Gorman's face went blank as his eyes became completely black. With a wave of his hand, he made the flames of the fireplace grow and form an almost monstrous face. The four boys gave a collective gasp of surprise, awe, and a little fright.

"This summer you won't be learning how to weave," Gorman let his hand fall to his side once more, smiling at the boys. "You'll be learning how to be warlocks."

Pogue leaned in close so the other three boys could hear him.

"This is gonna be the best summer ever." He grinned from ear-to-ear.

* * *

"If we can do scrying pools to look into another time does that mean that we can look into the future? 'Cause we could make a _fortune _off of the lottery!" Reid was ahead of the others walking backwards so he could look the others in the eyes. Out of the four of them he seemed to be the most psyched about having strange magical powers. Caleb shook his head.

"We can't go abusing our powers. Gorman said so."

"Oh, and do you always listen to balding old men who seemed to forget anything regarding dental hygiene? C'mon, Caleb, don't be a pussy."

"Whatever, Garwin…" Caleb mumbled, pushing his way past Reid and walking towards the mess hall. Pogue followed close behind but Tyler stuck by Reid.

"He's right, though, you know." Tyler looked at Reid with a shrug.

"Do you always go with the flow or do you ever stand up for what you _really _believe in?" Reid raised his eyebrows, stopping in his tracks to look at Tyler with his arms crossed. Tyler scoffed, slightly offended by the comment.

"_No_, I do what _I _want."

"Then _act like it."_ Reid turned on heel to walk ahead of Tyler. Tyler sighed, practically dragging his feet as he walked into the mess hall.

He filed into the line of campers piling god-knows-what casserole onto their food trays. It smelled alright but appearances were something different. It looked pretty disgusting. Pogue, Caleb, and Reid had taken a seat at a table and they'd left a spot open for him, but someone else caught his eye.

It was that girl he'd seen earlier on his first day at camp and she was sitting alone. While part of him longed to talk to and grow closer to his new friends, another bigger part of him longed for normalcy. He didn't want to talk about scrying pools and magical spells. Even though he wasn't yet at the age where girls become appealing, he identified her as the only other person he could sit with. Cliques had already formed and it seemed like she was a sort of a social cast-out, sort of like Tyler had been up until he'd met the other three boys he was staying with in the cabin.

"Hey," He set his tray down across the table from hers, sliding into a sitting position. The girl looked up from eating her food. She nodded a hello in his direction.

"Hey," She took another bite of whatever it was the campers had dished out to them.

"Tyler Sims," His mouth twitched into an awkward smile and soon after hers did the same.

"Kitty Pryde," She nodded again. "Nice to meet you."

"What cabin are you in?" He tilted his head curiously. Kitty scoffed, not looking too happy about the topic.

"Their cabin," She nodded over to a bunch of girls all in pink. She had nothing against the color pink, but plenty against those girls.

"Why aren't you sitting with them?" He scrunched his eyebrows together, confused.

"Because girls like that just don't mix well with girls like me." She smirked, secretly feeling a little sorry for herself.

"I don't get it." He confessed, leaning forward a little bit in hopes that Kitty would explain.

"I'm a technology geek. They're all… I don't know. Brats? Princesses? We're like oil and water." Tyler nodded again, thinking of his own situation with Pogue, Reid, and Caleb. They were all seemingly confident. Pogue and Caleb had already gotten attention from girls. Tyler was a shy sort of pudgy kid who doubted that he would ever in his entire life get the attention of the opposite sex.

"What about you?" Kitty looked at him, taking a sip from her carton of 2 milk.

"What about me?" He looked a little confused.

"Why aren't you eating with your friends?" She pointed her fork in the direction of the other three boys.

"I, uh…" He took a second to think of a suitable excuse but came up dry. "I just thought I'd sit with you. Do you, um, want me to… leave?" Her mouth formed that half-smile and she was silent for a moment, causing Tyler to become more insecure by the second.

"I've got no reason to dislike you. I think I can tolerate eating with you." She smiled at him, this time warmly and honestly.

"Good," Tyler's cheeks flushed a bit from his own shyness. Kitty giggled, a rare thing, and smiled at his insecurity.

"So what are you doing here?" Kitty inquired so innocently. Tyler immediately tensed up.

"Um," He coughed, nearly choking on his food. "Weaving."

Her mouth curled up into a smile and she hesitated for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Weaving? _Seriously?" _Tyler nodded uncomfortably.

"Someone signed us up for it before we even had a chance to see what activities were taken."

"So, do you _enjoy_ weaving?" She tried her hardest to stop smiling. She didn't really want Tyler to feel bad.

"No," He laughed to himself. "But I have a feeling that it'll be alright in the end." He nodded. "How about you?"

"Softball. Even though I'm not really the athletic type."

"So, why are you here?" And all of the sudden it seemed like Kitty had tensed up a great deal. She swallowed her food and paused before answering. Tyler picked up on that vibe only because he'd felt the same thing when she'd asked about _him._

"It's my last summer before I go off to a sort of private school and my parents thought I could use some normalcy." She smiled a little. It was the truth, albeit a very vague truth. Tyler knew that there was more to her story, but he wasn't the type to press for further answers.

"Sims!" Tyler cringed at the sound of Jambo's booming voice. He could hear each individual heavy step that the muscular counselor made in Kitty and his direction, flinching with each one. "Why ain'tcha with the rest of your cabin-mates? You got yourself a _girlfriend?" _

Those who'd heard Jambo, even the other counselors, laughed a little at Tyler's expense. Kitty gave Jambo a look that could kill before looking at Tyler sympathetically.

"C'mon, Sims, get with the rest of the runts."

"Sorry," Tyler murmured over to Kitty who nodded understandingly. He stood up, taking his tray with him and walked over towards Caleb, Pogue, and Reid but soon found himself on the ground, his face covered with whatever it was that he'd been eating. He heard kids laughing and soon realized that they were laughing at him. Jambo had tripped him.

"Best summer ever, my ass." Tyler grumbled, scrambling to clean himself up.

* * *

Tyler walked briskly from the woods surrounding Gorman Twoberry's "weaving" cabin back to the one he and the other three were staying in. They'd been fooling around with magic in the woods away from the other campers. They were far from being experts at using the Power, but it was still exhilarating even when used in such small doses.

While Caleb, Pogue, and Reid had long since left the woods to make it to their cabin by sunset, Tyler stayed behind, playing with different sorts of spells that all had to do with nature. He would have stayed all night if it wasn't for Jambo's threat.

He'd told the four of them that, if they weren't in bed by sun-down, he would leave their cabin door unlocked so that the Woods' Hole Warlock would come and suck their souls from them. Total bullshit, they all said, but being with Gorman Twoberry for the past few weeks had made all of them question what was real and what wasn't. After all, if magic is possible what's to keep another warlock from coming and sucking their souls out?

Tyler was almost to his cabin when he heard a familiar voice nearby. He tilted his head, walking towards it instead of his cabin.

"Let me in, guys…" Kitty pounded on the wooden door of her cabin, her voice tired as this had to be the hundredth time she asked her cabin-mates to open the door. She knew what they wanted. They wanted her to raise her voice, make a scene for everyone else around her. Kitty wasn't the kind of girl who just gave in to her peers even when said peers were complete bitches.

Tyler stepped up beside Kitty, the two of them exchanging half-smiles.

"Princesses, huh?" He smirked, referring to the other prissy girls inside of the cabin. He didn't understand the social pecking order even after years of being teased because of his weight.

"Yeah," She huffed, sitting on the wooden stairs outside of her cabin. "I don't get them." Kitty shook her head and stared at the sky.

"I was supposed to come here before I go off to school so I could have some normalcy. This just sucks." She propped her elbows on her knees, shaking her head again. Though she'd successfully kept her cool, Tyler could tell that she was a little hurt by the rejection she was facing right then.

Kitty moved over a bit allowing Tyler room to sit on the stairs next to her.

"Maybe if I just stop trying they'll let up and let me in." She exhaled a long breath, wishing she was anywhere but Camp Iwahanee. Having Tyler by her side made it less horrible, but it was still just that - Horrible.

He'd never been that close to a girl and that was mostly because no girl in grade school would be caught dead sitting next to him. Kitty didn't seem to mind and he was thankful for that.

Suddenly, Kitty sat up. Tyler looked over at her curiously.

"What?" He looked in the direction she was looking. "What is it?"

"Shh. I thought I heard growling." Tyler thought it was a joke, at first, but seeing the expression on Kitty's face put a little fear in him. _Maybe_, he thought_, this is it._ Maybe it was the Woods' Hole Warlock.

It was too dark to see details, but before they could even scream a dark form lurched towards them. Kitty stood up, instinctively going into a fighting position. Tyler was less graceful, scrambling to stand up but winding up right on his butt in the grass.

Seeing the dark form getting closer to Kitty was inspiration enough to spring up, standing in front of his friend. He wasn't thinking all that clearly when he sent a small blast of the Power at the form's stomach area. This knocked the form off balance but hardly hurt him.

The form took a lunge at Kitty and Tyler had to blink twice, not sure of what he'd seen. He thought that he'd seen the girl pass right through whatever it was and it seemed that the form was left as confused as Tyler was.

"Come on!" Kitty grabbed Tyler's wrist moments before the form took a swing at _him _and he was doubly shocked to see its arm pass through him as if he was made of air.

"I'll tell you later," Kitty whispered, not even looking at Tyler but instead focusing on the dark form before them.

"Damn," Jambo's gruff voice came from what they'd thought was a monster. "I get all dressed up like the Warlock and you get violent." He chuckled, holding his stomach where Tyler's blast of Power had hit him.

"Get your asses to bed." He shook his head and, being exhausted from the little spat with the thirteen-year-olds, practically had to drag himself back to his own cabin.

The other two stood where they were as if they were frozen in place. Only when they were absolutely sure Jambo was out of listening distance did they turn and face each other.

"You're a mutant." She said in a hushed voice.

"You're a witch!" He declared in a slightly louder whisper. They stared at each other for a moment, not sure of what to make of what they'd seen.

"I'm not a witch. I'm a mutant." She put one hand on her hip, waving her other arm around to phase through Tyler's body. He took a little gasp as he felt the limb phase right through him and out again.

"This is really messed up." He shook his head.

"Yeah, I'm agreeing with you on that one." She laughed softly at their circumstances, taking her seat on the cabin's stairs once more. Tyler just shook his head, sitting down next to her.

"So why don't you just walk through that door and put those girls in their place?" He propped his elbows up on his knees.

"I'm not too keen on blowing my secret, Tyler." She smirked. "It's probably the same reason you don't use your _magic_" She made quotation marks with her fingers in the air. "against Jambo. Am I right?"

"It's not entirely my secret to blow." This caught Kitty's attention. She looked at him curiously, nodding for him to elaborate.

"Caleb, Pogue, and Reid…?" He looked to see if she knew who he was talking about. She looked puzzled. "My cabin-mates." He clarified and she nodded, understanding who he was talking about.

"We've all got… The Power." She smirked at how cheesy it sounded, but her expression quickly became a serious one out of respect for Tyler and his friends. They sat quietly for a minute or so, letting the newly learned secrets sink in. Neither of them could really believe that they'd just blown their identities, but for some reason they felt at ease.

"This summer could wind up being cool." She smiled at Tyler. Kitty took a second, looking at how the night's shadows played on Tyler's face. She leaned in, feeling his breath on her lips for that second or two and then--

"We've decided you were worthy enough to-- OH my God!" One of the princess who shared the cabin with Kitty gasped dramatically then burst into giggles. The other two girls popped their heads into the doorways to see what she was laughing at and also burst into a giggle fit.

Needless to say that Kitty wound up blushing and scooting far away from Tyler.

"She's kissing the fat kid!" One of the girls shouted with a sadistic grin on her face.

"He's not fat!" Kitty snapped, hopping to her feet. "And we weren't kissing!"

It was too late, though. The damage was done and both Kitty and Tyler were hurt.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Tyler muttered, kicking the flowers off of dandelions as he made his way back to his own cabin.


End file.
